Postoperative chemoradiotherapy versus radiotherapy alone for cervical cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The aim of this study was to compare the treatment outcomes of postoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) with radiotherapy (RT) alone in patients with cervical cancer. Based on articles published up to December 2014 a literature search in PubMed and EMBASE was conducted to identify eligible studies. Risk ratio (RR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were used as pooled statistics. A total of 4 articles consisting of 461 patients were selected for the meta-analysis. Results revealed that there were a significant overall survival improvements (RR = 1.35, 95% CI: 1.15-1.60, p = 0.0003), a significant reduction of local recurrence (RR = 0.26, 95% CI: 0.14-0.51, p < 0001) and distant recurrence (RR = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.26-0.63, p < 0.0001) in the patients who received postoperative CRT, comparing with the patients who received RT alone. In conclusion, the results suggest a significant benefit of CRT for patients with cervical cancer, comparing with RT alone treatment.